Sunday, April 11, 2010

Next Day Shipping and Hot Weather Reorganization

Hot humid weather is slowly creeping back here in Central Florida. This means an end to my out door craft shows and soap making until around October. The heat and humidity are very hard on the shelf life of soaps and exposing them just isn't worth it. During the cool season I have my soaps organized in containers such that there are 4 or more of each variety in containers that I take to craft shows, a second craft show box for friend's to take to their shows, plus I have a number of overstock boxes set aside. This system requires a good deal of short term memory when it comes to packing online orders quickly.

With a baby due in a few weeks I wanted to totally reorganize this system for summer and make it easier for me to keep up with next day shipping from my shops. I love getting orders out as soon as possible and often they are shipped the same day that the order is placed. I picked up a number of 'shoe box' type containers for sorting soaps by type, so that they could be labeled and orders filled by myself or a helper quite easily..

I spent a day or two sorting soaps and also salves, perfumes, and lip balms so they would be quick and easy to find. The soaps are sorted by type and each box contains a desiccant to keep out humidity.

With summer weather on the way I will be doing more sewing and you can expect to find more variety of organic flax neck pillows and eye pillows in my shop. The neck pillows are so nice in the summer when stored in the freezer for use after a hot afternoon in the garden or for injuries. I have already restocked some of my neck pillow fabrics. I'm also getting ready for a second wholesale sewing project. I'll be sewing a full bolt of eye pillow liners in a couple of weeks.